# enable
## English
### Etymology

From Middle English enablen, equivalent to en- +‎ able.

### Pronunciation

* (General American, Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ɪˈneɪbəl/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -eɪbəl

### Verb

enable (third-person singular simple present enables, present participle enabling, simple past and past participle enabled)
* To make somebody able (to do, or to be, something); to give sufficient ability or power to do or to be; to give strength or ability to.
** 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Timothy i:12:And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
    Synonyms: empower, endow
* To affirm; to make firm and strong.
* To qualify or approve for some role or position; to render sanction or authorization to; to confirm suitability for.
    Synonyms: let, permit, authorize
** 2018 December 1, Drachinifel, 3:21 from the start, in Anti-Slavery Patrols - The West Africa Squadron‎, archived from the original on 29 November 2024:This was widely interpreted to mean that slavery was once more firmly illegal in England. However, the "positive law" mentioned–i.e., a direct law specifically enabling slavery–existed in many British colonies (although not all), since these colonies had a degree of freedom to write their own law apart from that of the home country.
* To yield the opportunity or provide the possibility for something; to provide with means, opportunities, and the like.
    Synonym: allow
** 1711 October 24 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “SATURDAY, October 13, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 195; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 506:Temperance gives Nature her full play, and enables her to exert herself in all her force and vigor.The spelling has been modernized.
** April 16, 2018, Norimitsu Onishi and Selam Gebrekidan writing in The New York Times, ‘They Eat Money’: How Mandela’s Political Heirs Grow Rich Off Corruption
** 2013 June 29, “A punch in the gut”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, pages 72–3:Mostly, the microbiome is beneficial. It helps with digestion and enables people to extract a lot more calories from their food than would otherwise be possible. Research over the past few years, however, has implicated it in diseases from atherosclerosis to asthma to autism.
** 2009, Meribeth A. Dayme, Dynamics of the Singing Voice, Springer Science & Business Media, page 174:Trainers of modern athletes monitor performance by using high tech equipment and biometric bodysuits with embedded sensors to enable detailed analysis of movement, balance, efficiency for athletic performance.
** 2022 January 12, David Clough, “From Germany with love: a Warship retrospective”, in RAIL, number 948, page 49:During 1971-72, spare Type 4s on other regions enabled the whole class to be sidelined, with Class 43s going first.
* To imply or tacitly confer excuse for an action or a behavior.
    His parents enabled him to go on buying drugs.
* (electronics) To put a circuit element into action by supplying a suitable input pulse.
* (chiefly electronics, computing) To activate, to make operational (especially of a function of an electronic or mechanical device).
    Synonyms: activate, turn on
    Antonym: disable

#### Derived terms

* disenable
* enablable
* enablement
* enabler
* reënable
* re-enable
* reenable

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Further reading

* “enable”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
* “enable”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
* “enable”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

### Anagrams

* baleen